Healthy living a key to 49ers’ defense

The topic was the remarkable ability of the 49ers‘ defensive starters to stay healthy in recent years and linebacker Parys Haralson was explaining the difference between being hurt and being injured in the NFL.

Hurt? That’s a throbbing ankle. Injured? That, Haralson said, is when a body part is no longer functional.

Haralson, who started 56 of San Francisco’s past 57 games, said his teammates’ passion for winning overwhelms their various aches. The best example, he said, is defensive tackle Justin Smith, but Haralson believes Smith belongs in his own category.

Smith, 32, who has played in 171 consecutive games and has not missed a game because of injury in his 12-year career, is indeed the leader of one of the NFL’s most durable defenses. Since 2008, the 49ers defensive starters have missed only 24 games, which translates to just more than two quarters of missed action per player each season. For perspective, consider that former Colts safety Bob Sanders missed 24 games during the 2008 and ’09 seasons.

Those expecting the 49ers to experience a dip after last season’s 13-3 record have cited their skimpy medical report in 2011. A defense that ranked second in the NFL in points allowed remained largely intact as its starters missed only eight games.

A fluke? For the 49ers, it was a continuation of a trend. Their defensive starters missed two games in 2010, 11 in 2009 and three in 2008.

Nose guard Isaac Sopoaga has missed two games since 2005. Safety Dashon Goldson has started 46 of 48 games since 2009. And linebacker Patrick Willis started 75 of his first 76 career games before missing three games with a hamstring injury last year.

The 49ers, however, are quick to note they haven’t discovered the trick to staying healthy in a violent game.

“A lot of it is luck,” said cornerback Tarell Brown, who started 16 games last year. “We all know it’s a violent game and things happen. I think we’ve been very fortunate these past couple years.”

Said defensive coordinator Vic Fangio: “Our players are committed to being in great shape – and then you throw in a little bit of luck in there, too.”

The 49ers’ coaches and players have routinely hailed the work of strength and conditioning coach Mark Uyeyama, who arrived in 2008 and served for three seasons as an assistant strength coach.

It’s also helped that Smith, who also arrived in 2008, has set the tone.

Coaches often say it’s invaluable when a team’s best players double as their hardest workers. And Smith is the Sultan of Sweat. In January, general manager Trent Baalke discovered Smith in the weight room – two days after the 49ers’ loss in the NFC Championship Game.

“I’ve only been at this 15 years in the NFL, and in my years of coaching, I haven’t come across many like him – if any,” Baalke said at the NFL combine.

Haralson, Smith and defensive tackle Ray McDonald are among a core group of players who train together in the Bay Area during the offseason. That trio started 53 of 54 possible games, including the playoffs, last year.

Still, Haralson knows no amount of training and dedication can make players impervious to injury. Some of the 49ers’ durability, he said, can be credited to divine intervention.

“A lot of it is blessing, God’s grace,” Haralson said. “All it takes is one play, everybody knows that.”

Durable defense

The 49ers’ defensive starters have missed an average of six games over the past four seasons. A look at the 24 missed games: